Artemis Fowl  Book 9  The Outbreak
by Master Chen
Summary: Artemis' mother is dying once again. He has a plan to save her but he needs the help of his friends. Will he succeed?
1. Chapter 1

Artemis Fowl Book 9

** The Beginning of a New Adventure**

**Fowl Manor, Ireland.**

Butler was using his Japanese kodachi to chop carrots for his charge's dinner. His charge was definitely changing. Recently he seemed to stay far away from any food containing any form of meat. Whenever Butler served him his signature roasted pork stew with beans Master Artemis would simply excuse himself and eat some chips for his meal.

"Master Artemis is definitely hiding something from me but I have no idea what it is."

Juliet Butler burst into the kitchen disturbing Butler's mental babble. She quickly ran up to him and just stood there looking at her brother.

"Is something wrong Juliet?'

"It's Mrs. Fowl. She fell asleep and she won't wake up. She also has discolouration in her fingers and toes."

"Where is Master Artemis?"

"He is at his mother's bedside with his father"

"Juliet call Dr. Langford while I get the medical kit."

Juliet rushed out of the room without saying one more word. Butler ran downstairs an into the storage room. He hesitated trying to remember where the tool he desired was. His eyes settled on a box. His hands reached out for it and grasped it. Butler took the time to blow off the accumulated dust and he ran upstairs into the main hall. He reached the oak staircase and took three steps at a time.

_**Mrs. Fowl's room, Fowl Manor, Ireland**_

Artemis Fowl II was standing beside his mother's bed sobbing uncontrollably. He loved his mother too much to let her die. He felt a comforting hand rest on his shoulder and he looked up into his father's eyes- Artemis Fowl I's eyes.

"Stop crying son, we're not going to let her die without trying to save her. Use that big brain of yours to think of a solution to this problem."

One of Artemis Fowl II's gifts was an intelligence that exceeded that of Mozart, Archimedes, Beethoven and even Albert Einstein. Under normal circumstances he would easily be able to come up with a plan to save his mother but his mind was too clouded with his grief and anxiety.

"Artemis . . ." said Mrs. Fowl. Her words sounded like that of an old spirit trying to whisper a secret to a living being.

Artemis' head cleared instantly. He grasped his mother's left hand while his father grasped her right hand.

"Yes mother I'm here."

"What is happening to me?' There was a pause between her words because she was gasping for air.

"You're simply having a fever mother. You will be alright."

"I trust you Artemis but this feels much worse than a simple fever. My body aches, my finger and toes don't move when I tell them to and it feels like my blood is frozen."

"You will be alright my beauty." said Artemis Fowl senior.

"Give me a hug my son although I can't lift up my arms."

Artemis approached his mother and wrapped his arms tightly around her. He was surprised by how bony and frail she felt. It had been a long time since he had hugged his mother. Time seemed to slow down as he remembered how strong and healthy his mother once was.

Butler burst into the room shattering Artemis' moment of peace.

"I am going to try to help Mrs. Fowl," declared Butler. However there was really no need to say it because he was carrying a metal box with a big red plus sign on it.

Both Artemis Fowl senior and junior stepped aside to give Butler some room. He took out an injection needle and filled it with a clear liquid which he got from a transparent plastic bottle.

"This will make her feel better and ease her passing." said Butler as he worked.

"No!" shouted both Artemis Senior and Junior.

"We will not let her die." Said Artemis junior softly, trying to regain his composure.

"There is nothing that we can do for her Artemis." Stated Butler trying to fake nonchalance.

"I have an idea," said Artemis junior," We can ask Captain Holly Short to help us. Remember she has fairy magic _and technology _ on her side, she might be able to help us." He said while twisting his ring on his middle finger.

The ring was actually a disguised fairy communicator which he could use to send messages to Holly and any other fairy that he was interested in talking to.

"Holly can you hear me?"

"Artemis I hope that one day you will stop calling me so often."

"I apologize but this is an emergency."

"Really, now? No I will not let you talk to Foaly. Both of you always argue too much and I'm sick and tired of listening to your useless banter."

"First of all talking about the Theory of Relativity is not useless banter and second of all I need you to come and heal my mother she is dying."

"Again?"

"Yes, again. If you don't come soon, she will die."

"I'm on my way Artemis."

"Oh, ask Foaly to help us, we might need his genius."

Artemis was sure that he could feel Holly rolling her eyes as she spoke her next sentence

"Fine I'll bring Foaly but only because it's important."

Holly hung up. Artemis turned to his family and Butler.

"She is coming."


	2. Chapter 2

**_Bad News_**

**Haven City, Near Thethe Centre of the Earth**

Captain Holly Short was on the highway to the shuttle port E-41Tara. She was feeling quite happy despite the dire situation. She hadn't seen Master Artemis for more than two months. Holly was actually quite fond of the teenage criminal master mind. Both of them saved the world multiple times in the past. For a moment Holly remembered what Artemis was like before they had gotten to know each other. He had kidnapped her, held her hostage and he allowed fairy technology to be taken from him by a corrupted business man named John Spyro.

Holly finally turned her attention back to the road and swerved to the left. She almost ran over a Swearing Toad and got an explicit shout from behind her. Holly sighed. That particular breed had been created by a warlock who had obviously lost many brain cells during his warlock training. Now the streets were filled with those mutated toads.

Finally Holly reached the shuttle port E-41 Tara and was greeted by an overwhelming crowd.

"D'arvit!" swore Holly

She got out of the car and started pushing towards the large building

"Excuse me LEPrecon coming through."

She finally managed to get to the door but the next problem was that she would have to open the door without letting anyone else in. She side-kicked a sprite who she thought was getting too close into her personal space.

"I need all of you to stay back while I enter this building. Am I understood?"

Nobody responded but it was obvious that they got the message.

"Good." Said Holly and stepped into the building, shutting the door behind her.

"Ah, Holly you made it," said Commander Julius Root.

"Yes sir, I am sorry that I took so long. Artemis needs my help to heal his mother."

"Artemis can wait. We have on our hands a Rank A emergency."

"What is the emergency?"

"Holly, once again we have an outbreak of a deadly disease."

"What is it this time?"

"It's Hugomania."

"Oh no," sighed Holly feelingfelling the fear creeping up along her spine.

"We traced the source of the outbreak to this specific building; but we do notdon't know who was patient zero was."

"Sir, do you know the symptoms of this disease?"

"Yes, they are discolouration of limbslimb and joints, high fever and deep sleeps from which the victim may never wake up from."

_It is starting to make sense. Artemis' mother has Hugomania._

"Commander, Artemis' mother has all three of those symptoms," said Holly, trying unsuccessfully to keep the tremble out of her voice.

"That's impossible, Hugomania only affects fairies."

"Well Julius, it is possible to have a human strain of this disease," said Foaly walking through a door.

"Holly, go and get Artemis and his mother to come down here. Carry some additional medical supplies to keep her alive until she gets to here. Oh, you may also get Butler."

Holly strode up to a closed door and typed a code into a chrome-coloured panel. The door opened with a pneumatic hiss. Foaly came in behind her and took his place inside by a control panel.

"Remember, Artemis wanted you to carry me as well."

Holly rolled her eyes.

"How do you know that?"

"It was very easy to hack into your fairy communicator and hear what you two were talking about."

"Let's get going. We need to complete this mission as soon as possible."

Foaly toggled a few and joysticks and pressed some buttons and from the top of the control panel detached from the base and folded itself into a laptop - a very fast and futuristic laptop.

"It's my newest development. With this I'm able to be in a shuttle and control it without anyone else having to use the other control panel."

He pressed a big red button and a red shiny flume shuttle came out. A flume shuttle is a vehicle that fairies use when they need to go above ground in a hurry. It used the power of the earth'sEarth's lava flumes to shoot up to the surface.

Both Holly and Foaly stepped in and the hatch closed.

"Are you ready?" asked Foaly.

"No, but I need to do this anyway."

Foaly pressed a button and a lever popped out of the panel. He pushed it forward and the shuttle started to rise very quickly towards the surface of the Earth. They were one their way.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 – Patient Zero**

Fowl Manor, Ireland

"Where is Holly?" wondered Artemis while he paced across the room to and fro.

"She is probably shuttling towards the Earth's surface in one of those flume shuttles." Said Butler.

Artemis looked at his wrist-watch. It was 2:35. He had called holly over and hour ago. Artemis saw open and it appeared to close itself.

"Ah Holly, you took longer than expected to reach here." said Artemis.

Holly shutdown her fairy shield. Fairy shields could make their wearer look invisible to all but a few animals. Humans could not see through a fairy shield unless they used specialized fairy helmets.

"I brought Foaly just like you asked me to," said Holly.

"But I don't see him." responded Artemis

About 2 seconds after Artemis said that there was a loud crash coming from the balcony just outside of Mrs. Fowl's room.

"Sorry, I'm not as graceful as Holly is because of my hooves." Said a voice from outside

Foaly was a centaur and as you probably know a centaur is a creature with the head, arms, and torso of a man and the body and legs of a horse and so Foaly was not good with maintaining his balance.

"Get in here Foaly" commanded Holly.

Foaly trotted into the room with his belly looking as big as ever.

"Foaly don't you know that it's good to exercise once in a while?" teased Artemis.

"Back off Artemis. I know that you aren't good in the physical aspect of your life." retorted Foaly with a whinny.

"Can't you two stop sparring like two dogs for once? I knew that I was making a mistake when I brought you along Foaly." Snapped Holly

"Yes, back to business. My mother is dying and I need you to try to heal her Holly."

"Commander Root told me to bring your mother down to Haven City. I'll try to keep her alive but I don't think I can do much for her. I think she has a disease known as Hugomania. It's almost always fatal."

"Let us get started with the process then. Holly take your place, please."

Holly went over to Mrs. Fowl's bedside and had to try hard not to burst into tears. Mrs. Fowl looked horrible.

"Foaly, where should I start healing her?"

"Start over her heart area since that's the main area where the disease attacks."

Holly put her hand 6 centimeters above Mrs. Fowl's torso and started to call on her magic.

"Heal," she breathed.

Blue magical sparks appeared dancing around for a second then they moved to the area that needed the most healing. No matter how many time Artemis saw magic he couldn't get over how amazing it looked. He has a theory that humans used to know how to use magic but had lost the magic over the ages.

Mrs. Fowl's body shook violently and convulsed.

"Holly stop the flow of magic. It seems to be making her condition get even worse. Look her fingers are even more discoloured than they were before.

"We need to get her down to Haven City A.S.A.P." said Holly

"Let's leave immediately. How many passengers can your shuttle hold?

"It can hold up to eight people. Well let me add, eight regularly sized people." Responded Foaly, while looking at the huge Butler.

" Ok let's go."

They walked unto the balcony where Holly's flume shuttle lay.

Foaly pressed a button and the hatch opened with a pneumatic hiss. Holly stepped in first followed by Artemis Junior, Butler, Artemis Senior who was carrying Mrs. Fowl and Foaly who closed the hatch behind them.

They were on their way


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 – The Group Gathers**

**Shuttle Port E-41 Tara, Near the Centre of the Earth**

Foaly was the first to come out of the shuttle. He was followed by Holly, Artemis Junior, Artemis Senior who was still carrying Mrs. Fowl and the last person to come out was Butler since he was placed at the back. Foaly pulled back a lever and the shuttle was lowered into the hangar.

"Holly, that was some scary flying even for you," said Foaly who was on the verge of collapsing.

"I was trying to arrive as quickly as possible so that Mrs. Fowl would have a higher chance of surviving."

"You could have crashed into one of those huge underground mountains." Pointed out Artemis Senior

"It's your wife I'm trying to save," retorted Holly," I think that you should be less troublesome."

"You're right I'm sorry."

Without saying another word Holly went up to the door with the panel and typed in her code. She took one step forward and ran straight into Commander Julius Root. Root let out a very girly shriek and looked at Holly. Foaly made sure to tease Root about that particular incident when he got the chance.

"Oh Holly, I see that you've already completed your mission," said Julius as he scratched his hair.

"Yes I have."

"We need to get her into an emergency hospital A.S.A.P. to conduct some tests and find a way to cure her," pointed out Foaly.

"That's why I brought this stretcher with me," said Julius pointing to the group of sprites behind him who were holding a stretcher.

Artemis Senior laid his wife down on the stretcher. He was unsuccessfully trying to conceal the fact that he was near tears. He felt a comforting, big and steadying hand on his shoulder. He turned and looked up and up and up until he was able to see Butler's dark blue eyes.

"She is going to be alright. She is in very capable hands," said Butler.

"Don't forget the fact that this disease is almost always fatal," pointed out Foaly.

"Foaly, can't you be of some use for once?" inquired Holly.

"He just needs to accept the fact that the chances are that his wife will die. Also I am almost always of some use to you guys. Didn't you need me to launch the shuttle this morning? If it wasn't for me Mrs. Fowl would still be at Fowl Manor dying. At least she has more of a chance now that she is with us."

"Can I accompany her while you guys try to heal her?" asked Artemis Fowl Senior.

Foaly took a while to think about it and then answered.

"No, there's a chance that you guys will also get the disease. Since all of us have come in contact with her we need to be screened and cleansed for safety reasons but you can stay in the same hospital with her while you're being cleansed."

Artemis Fowl Senior didn't say anything more.

Commander Root and Foaly led the group to a waiting fairy vehicle. The vehicle used some sort of air to keep it afloat. Angeline Fowl and the sprites were put at the back of the vehicle.

"This vehicle has the ability to keep the germs from a patient from reaching the other occupants. That's the only reason why we're in the same car as she is," explained Foaly.

The other occupants were at the front part of the vehicle. The vehicle was built for people the size of regular fairies and not for people that were Butler's size. Butler could have sworn that he was getting **  
><strong>Claustrophobic.


End file.
